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Quad County Corn Processors conclude successful C5 yeast trial

Bioenergy International

Biofuels & Oils

August 28, 2017

The trial conducted at Quad County Corn Processors ethanol plant in Galva, Iowa, has successfully demonstrated that XyloFerm converts xylose and c6 sugars to ethanol in the full-scale Cellerate cellulosic ethanol process.

In April 2017, a consortium consisting of Taurus Energy AB, a Swedish ethanol production R&D company, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits (LBDS), a business unit of the Canadian yeast and bacteria producer Lallemand, Inc, Syngenta, a global crop science company and US ethanol producers Quad County Corn Processors (QCCP) initiated a trial of Energy’s xylose/C6 co-fermenting yeast XyloFerm in the Cellerate process at QCCP’s ethanol plant in Iowa to evaluate performance at large scale.

The trial has concluded and, according to a statement, the results confirm that XyloFerm can successfully convert C6 sugars and xylose (C5) to ethanol in the full-scale industrial process.

The next steps involve fine-tuning and optimization of the process both from a technical and economic viability standpoint, in order to achieve optimal performance and economic benefit to all parties. For the foreseeable future work will be performed at lab scale and/or pilot scale due to scheduling restrictions at QCCP but the consortium remains “dedicated to a collaborative effort” in order to realize the reliable and profitable integration of xylose-to-ethanol conversion within the Cellerate process.

The Cellerate process technology allows for the production of cellulosic ethanol from corn kernel fiber. In 2014, Syngenta announced an agreement with Cellulosic Ethanol Technologies, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of QCCP, to be the exclusive marketer of Cellerate process technology to ethanol plants in North America.

The process has been shown to boost ethanol production by 26 percent (20 percent throughput increase and 6 percent yield increase) when used in combination with Syngenta’s Enogen corn.